Tailored family outdoor holiday in Hossa, Part 2.

We woke up after a silent night and peaceful sleep, had a nice breakfast which included Finnish bread, tea, coffee, yogurt, sausages, eggs and a vegetables, berries and fruits. Firstly when we yesterday arrived to Rajakartano, I served everyone a nice refreshing glass of homemade raspberry/blueberry juice as a welcoming toast. A rest of that tasted also very good in the morning. Thanks to Marika, my girlfriend for making that good juice!

We cleaned up the house, took our luggage and drove first to Hossa Visitor Center where we checked out the exhibition: "Mihin näillä selkosilla ennen uskottiin". 

The exhibition presents people’s world view in the distant past. A world view is a person's mental landscape, which explains the birth of the world and the supernatural, the circle of life, happiness and suffering, the afterlife. 

The world view mixes up old and new religions.  The undercurrent of the world of belief of the people in and around the Hossa area is the traditional northern belief in nature, the roots of which go back thousands of years. The exhibition talks about this belief in nature, the later folk religion and the conversion to Christianity. It also explains how our ancient religious tradition shines through in our own times.

(http://www.outdoors.fi/Customerservicepoints/visitorcentres/hossa/Pages/Default.aspx)

After checking out the exhibition we started our hiking day from the Lihapyörre parking place and took a direction to ancient rock paintings. The round tour is about 8 kilometers in variable terrain on the hills and on the dry land. The nature and species of Hossa Hiking Area are typical of the Kainuu region and the north. The vegetation and birds of the area have features of those of Lapland. (outdoors.fi/Natural Features of Hossa Hiking Area)

On the route I told about local features of the nature, soil and the landscape in Hossa and about the times after a last ice age and its effects to how Finland and its nature looks like today - about 10.000 years after. After a little while we came to Hossa Rock Paintings. We could get to see them very close from the platform on the lake. Everyone got a very good sight and pictures of paintings which were painted to the rock over a 400 years ago. The paint was probably a mixture of grease, ingredients from the soil, blood and egg yolk. 

There is a fireprlace near the rock paintings where I fried sausages and frankfurters by the open fire for people. We had also made some sandwiches with us fom the breakfast table. Everyone got their stomachs full and we continued hiking, picking up berries for the next breakfast and eating wild raspberries straight from the bushes. During the hike to cars, couple of us had also a little swimming break on the beautiful river!